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Danville Bands
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A Half-Century of Music BY JACK GARRETT
While Southside Virginia might not be the musical mecca of the South, a number of fine groups and artists started their journey in the Danville area. A few gained national notoriety, while others languished “discovered” by record collectors. Many local artists recorded for Danville’s Raven Records, an independent label owned by Frank Koger, who worked in the electronics department at K-Mart and moonlighted as a record producer. His small studio, The House of Sound, was on Old Piney Forest Road. The House of
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Sound produced some of the area’s best soul and garage bands of the sixties before Koger moved to Nashville to try his hand at country music. Those groups and others carved a niche and created music that the Brits covet and refer to as “Northern Soul.” The bands may be gone, but their music lives on.
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The Soulmasters The Soulmasters actually held its first practices in Eden, North Carolina. Organizers Doug Hyler and Wayne Womble met John Irby and Jerry Wilson while jamming with the area’s best soul band, the New Breed. Practices were soon moved to Danville after Irby learned that the Klan had threatened to set fire to their practice room. Four local bands merged to create The Soulmasters and the group went on to pack dances at the Coke Plant, the 360 Drive-In, Baldwin’s Gymnatorium in Martinsville, and The Pavilion in Myrtle Beach, SC.
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The group expanded to 12 pieces and were
Sax player Doug Hyler wrote the A-side
slated to perform during “Amateur Night”
at his dad’s house. He regards “You Took
at New York’s famed Apollo Theater in
Away the Sunshine” as “a better reflection
1968. The trip was canceled after the
of The Soulmasters as a whole, with John
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
and Jerry doing a lot of counterpoint.” Both
songs charted on AM stations in the area.
The Soulmasters recorded one 45 for Raven
The single became a regional hit for the
Records in 1967. Womble recalls the studio
band.
being simple, even by sixties standards, and included a single, two-track recorder.
There were many personnel changes
WYPR DJ Bill Dudley financed the sessions.
between 1968 and 1970, when The
The group spent two days recording “I’ll
Soulmasters called it a day.
Be Waiting Here” and “You Took Away the Sunshine.”
Gene and the Team Beats
While technically a Martinsville band,
52 d a n v i l l e p i t t s y l v a n i a c o u n t y , v i r ginia
Photos Courtesy of Jack Garrett
in obscurity until their recordings were